Synthesis Partnership
683 Commonwealth Avenue
Newton Massachusetts 02459
617 340 9991
[email protected]
Aligning strategy,
identity, capacity, and facilities
with mission, vision, and values.
© 2019 Synthesis Partnership
All rights reserved
Facilities
Facilities are an extraordinarily costly response to a need. To ensure efficient use of institutional resources, facility planning should build on a thoroughly developed integrated plan. The more that is known about strategic and functional needs and resources, the more likely the right facility will be built in the right way for the right budget. If building is required, we help clients to reduce costs, risks and stress, while increasing the quality of the outcome.
The more thorough and rigorous preparation that can be done before hiring an architect the more the results — and costs — can be controlled.
Synthesis Partnership guides clients through all aspects of the facility development process. We have found, more often than not, that the needs and answers that initially seem obvious often miss the real opportunities.
We have assisted organizations with all degrees of experience in creating facilities with facility concept development, master planning, architectural programming and budgeting, selection of architects and designers, contract development and negotiation, and monitoring the design process.
For more detail see these articles:
Critical Issues #13: Facility Planning
Selecting an Architect (PDF)
Project Controls
Rigorous planning can assure that design and construction are preceded by clarity about goals, quantitative and qualitative needs, budget, project management structure and the controls needed to reduce costs and risks and deliver the expected results.
Facility project management involves three parties: owner, architect, and general contractor. Each has a separate set of interests and an independent role to play. A successful project emerges from effective interplay among them. The architect and construction manager have this work as their primary business; the fundamental challenge is for the owner to mobilize properly in an unfamiliar circumstance. To keep the project on track and to avoid unnecessary costs, the owner must navigate the processes and decisions required for adherence to objectives, schedules and budgets.
For more detail download these articles (PDF):
To Build or Not to Build
published in Trusteeship, the journal of the Association of Governing Boards
Client-Favorable Contracts for Design & Construction
Total project cost is often confused with construction cost, which can be as little as half the total. Costs are most effectively controlled at the early stages of planning. Financial modeling can reveal the full impact of a facility project on the operating budget, as well as refining the capital budget.